Does the MTBE plant have a subsequent methanol recovery unit?
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Hello everyone, I would like to ask: is there a process in the subsequent treatment of MTBE plant products that involves washing to recover methanol? What is the process flow? Thank you!
Washing tower + methanol distillation column to recover methanol
Yes, the methanol-water solution obtained after washing the etherification products is sent to the methanol recovery tower for distillation
In systems equipped with a methanol recovery unit, water is first fed into the wash tower to absorb methanol; the mixture of methanol and water then enters the distillation tower where methanol is separated. The water that is separated is sent back to the wash tower to absorb more methanol
Yes, generally a methanol distillation tower is installed to recover methanol, while the water proceeds to the wash tower for reuse
We have a methanol recovery system here, which consists of an extraction tower and a recovery tower (methanol distillation tower). The extraction tower first separates methanol from unreacted C4 compounds; the C4 compounds emerge from the top of the tower, while methanol exits along with the extract at the bottom of the tower and enters the recovery tower. The recovery tower then separates out the methanol, and the water obtained as a by-product is sent back to the extraction tower to absorb more methanol. When starting up the system, the methanol recovery system is usually activated first
Yes, there are a methanol recovery tower and a C4 washing tower to recover methanol!
Yes, there is a methanol distillation tower after the methanol washing tower
To further recover methanol and reduce consumption, methanol extraction and recovery towers are now included in MTBE designs. The following is the process flow; it should help you understand the process. The remaining methanol together with the unreacted C4 forms an azeotrope, which is drawn out of the reflux tank using catalytic distillation reflux pumps (P-203/1, 2), with part of this stream being used as reflux for T-201/2； The other portion is cooled to 40°C by the extraction tower feed cooler (E-204) and then sent to the lower part of the methanol extraction tower (T-202). The extracted water is pumped out by the extraction water pumps (P-205/1, 2), cooled to around 38°C by the extraction water cooler E-207, and enters from the top of T-202. In T-202, the mixture of methanol and unreacted C4 acts as the dispersed phase, while the extraction water serves as the continuous phase. The two liquid phases are in continuous counter-current contact, allowing methanol to be extracted by water. The raffinate, which contains essentially no methanol, is the reacted C4, which is discharged from the top of the tower to the unreacted C4 tank (V-205), and then sent out of the plant via the unreacted C4 pumps (P-207/1, 2) for storage in the tank area. The extract is a methanol-water solution, which is directly discharged from the bottom of the tower to the feed of the methanol extraction tower – the extraction water heat exchanger (E-208) for heat exchange. The material after heat exchange, with a temperature of 80–89°C, enters the middle section of T-203. This tower is a packed tower that uses 300Y structured packing. The pressure in T-202 is controlled by the pressure control valve on the outlet line at the top of the tower, while the flow rate of the extraction water entering T-202 is controlled by the flow control valves on the outlet lines of P-205/1 and 2. The top distillate of T-203 is a methanol mixture containing trace amounts of water and C4; it is condensed in the tower top coolers (E-209/1, 2) and then enters the reflux tank (V-204). The reflux tank operates at atmospheric pressure, and the trace gases at the top of the tank are released into the atmosphere through an exhaust pipe. The condensate is pumped out by the methanol recovery column reflux pumps (P-206/1, 2); most of it is sent back as reflux to the top of T-203, while a small amount of methanol is sent to the methanol feed tank (V-202). What is discharged from the bottom of T-203 is water containing trace amounts of methanol, which, after heat exchange with the feed in E-208 and being cooled, enters the extraction water pumps (P-205/1, 2) to be used as extraction water and circulated back to the upper part of T-202. At the bottom of the T-203, there is a reboiler E-210; this reboiler uses steam as a heating medium to provide heat for the recovery of methanol. The distillation section of T-203 is controlled by top reflux, with the reflux flow rate adjusted via a flow control valve. The reboiler at the bottom of the tower is equipped with steam flow control.
Hehe, the same as above. Both refinery-type and chemical-type MTBE have methanol recovery systems
The extraction tower uses water to extract methanol from the unreacted C4, while the methanol recovery tower separates methanol from water.